Improvement in making wrought-iron direct from the qre



J. BENTON.

Making Iron direct from Ore. No. 11,838. Patented Oct. 24, 1854.

N. PEIERS. Pmmh n km. Wnhinnun. n C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

JAMES BENTON, or CLEVELAND, oHIo,

IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING WROUGHT-IRON DIRE C T FROM THE ORE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. ll,83!, dated October 24, 1854.

To aZZ whom it may cancer-n5 Be it known that I, JAMES BENTON, of Cleveland, Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Furnaces for Making- Iron Direct from the Ore, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the improved furnace; Fig. 2 a longitudinal and Fig. 3 a cross section thereof; and Fig. 4 another crosssectionat a a, Fig. 2.

The same letters indicate the sameparts in all the figures.

My present invention is of an improvement in the process of making iron direct from the ore described in the patent granted to Alexander Dickinson, hearing date the 22d of July, 1850, and-to myself bearing date the 23d of December, 1851, which process consists in deoxidizing the ore in a close chamber, so combined with the puddlingl-furnace that the ore which is deoXidized by the waste heat of the puddling-furnace without the products of combustion coming in contact with the ore shall be delivered directly onto the puddlingbottom from the deoXidizing-chamber with out exposure to the atmosphere; and my said invention consists in combiningwith a puddling-furnace and close deoXidizing-chamber, the introduction of ablast of atmospheric air, heated or cold, into the puddling-chamber, and discharged directly onto the ore after it has been delivered from the deoxidizingchamber onto the puddling bottom, and during the operation of deoxidizing, to facilitate the discharge of the carbon, and increasing the heat by infiaming the combustible evolved.

In the accompanying drawings, a' represents the series of vertical deoXidizing-chambers, in'which the ore is charged with carbon, to be deoxidized by the heated products of combustion which pass through a series of fiues, b, at the sides of the chambers. These chambers a are placed over the rear end of the bottom 0 of a puddling-furnace, d, so

that when the ore is deoxidized 'it is discharged from the deoXidizing-chambers onto the puddling-bottom, where the'iron is puddled and balled.

The puddling or revcrberatory furnace con sists, as usual, of a fire chamber, c, with ashpit f and grate g, a bridgaj, and roof j to reverberate the flame onto the iron on the bottom in the process of preparation. In the roof, at k, there is a series of apertures or tuyeres ranged across the furnace and communicating with a pipe, I, with two branches, at m-0ne on each sideand passing through the flues b, and thence connected with a suitable blowing apparatus. The. blast forced in from the blower in passing through the branch pipes m m is heated, and in the heated state is blown in jet-s directly through the flame onto the iron on the puddling-bottom, by means of which the ore is more readily brought to the required condition for balling, to be worked into blooms by the usual means. After the iron has been properly treated in the puddling-furnace it may be, if desired, discharged through a door, 72, into a refinery, 0, placed at the side of the puddling-furnace.

Instead of discharging the jets of air through tuyeres in the roof, they may be placed at the sides and inclined, although I prefer placing them in the roof; and instead of heating the air by passing the pipes through the flues, they may be carried through or along the side walls of the pu'ddling furnace, or around the fire-chamber, or in any other suitable or known manner of heating ,a blast, and, if de-' sired, the air maybe blown onto the iron in the cold state, although I prefer to have it heated.

I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to the use of a puddling-furnace of the construction-herein specified; nor of a deoxidizing apparatus such as herein specified; nor to the arrangement for delivering the ore from the deoxidizing-chamber onto the puddling-bottom; nor, finally, to the kind or arrangement of the apparatus, as these may be varied at pleasure so long asthey are suited to the purpose contemplated.

I do'not wish to be understood as making claim to the combination of the deoxidizing apparatus with the puddling-furnace to dis charge the deoxidized ore directly onto the puddling-bottom, as this has already been sehearth or hearths, substantially as specified,

cured by Letters Patent, as before specified. to aid in decarbonizing the oreand inereas- What I do claim as my invention, and. deing the heat; as specified. desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Combining with the combined de0xidiz- BENTON ing apparatus and paddling -furnace, as de- Witnesses: scribed, the employment of a blast or blasts JAMES A. BRIGGS,

to be forced onto the deoxidized ore on the W. H. BURRIDGE. 

